Aibu to make money from a charity shop purchase?

[Partnerprobs]

Recently went to a charity shop and found a couple of items for sale that I liked and were in very good condition. A handbag and a book. Both were in a locked cabinet. I bought them for £25 in total and have sold them on eBay for £75 and £34 pounds, so I’ve made about £84 (less eBay fees which I haven’t seen yet)

My best friend was really shocked and said it’s like stealing and I should donate the money to the charity - this has surprised and unnerved me as I thought it was fine (as they were in the cabinet so had been picked as higher end items, and also they were more expensive than normal items)

I thought it was a lucky break and was looking forward to treating myself.

Aibu?

@LittleBiscuit09

Morally dubious.

Legally no.

Not even morally dubious.

We price things according to our knowledge and expectations. If someone else knows more than we do then good for them. If they want to donate some of that back to us good, if not, hey ho!

It's not as if charity shops don't have resident or visiting experts to look through their donations.

An item is worth what people will pay for it. Presumably the shop know their market and price things accordingly. Its much more likely to find overpriced stuff in charity shops, such as primark tat for more that it's shop price. I once saw some well worn and not particularly nice Gina sandals for 40 quid, no way would anyone pay that.

Personally I find it morally wrong for charity shops to put stuff on ebay to get a higher price. They benefit from cheap business rates so should be providing an in person service to the local community.

That's not how gift aid works. Gift aid is for cash donations to charity, not for goods donated to charity shops or on charity sales of goods.

It is absolutely for goods donated to charity shops. Everything which is gift aided is sold through a different barcode linked to that person. It means that something sold for £10 is actually worth £12.50 to the shop, where the £2.50 is claimed from the donators tax.

YANBU to do what you did but why did you buy the items in the first place?

Charity shops are helpful for those who can't afford new and pushing their prices up makes it harder for them to afford it.

That handbag could've been a nice accessory for someones job interview, for example.

I've always thought that the reason why charity shops have pushed their prices up so much is because of those coming in and selling things for a profit.

legally you've done nothing wrong. However, morally I would argue otherwiswe

It’s absolutely fine for you to do what you did, you supported the charity shop, you didn’t steal from them! Enjoy treating yourself.

@slashlover

That's not how gift aid works. Gift aid is for cash donations to charity, not for goods donated to charity shops or on charity sales of goods.

It is absolutely for goods donated to charity shops. Everything which is gift aided is sold through a different barcode linked to that person. It means that something sold for £10 is actually worth £12.50 to the shop, where the £2.50 is claimed from the donators tax.

Agree - I've gift aided donations of books to charity shops before.

My local charity shop checks prices online and will sell stuff through ebay if they will fetch more that way. If your charity shop doesn't do that then you paid what they wanted. If your feeling generous you could make a donation but I don't think you've done anything wrong.

@UserStillatLarge

That's a reach. Op could easily have bought them because she liked them, and then looked them up and discovered they were worth something, at which point she realised she liked the cash more than the item. Which is completely fine.

I buy a lot of items from charity shops because I like them. I have literally never looked up how much I could get for them on ebay. Why would you do this if you'd bought an item you planned to use? I agree the OP is being disingenuous.

I've bought things I like & intend to keep, & then looked up exactly what they are & how much they're worth. It educates me (e.g. on the history of Czech glass bead making), & if they're worth something I like them even more!

@honehmooh

Charity shops are helpful for those who can't afford new and pushing their prices up makes it harder for them to afford it.

That handbag could've been a nice accessory for someones job interview, for example.

I've always thought that the reason why charity shops have pushed their prices up so much is because of those coming in and selling things for a profit.

legally you've done nothing wrong. However, morally I would argue otherwiswe

Charity shops are there to make money for the charity. End of. The prices are supposed to be the maximum they can get for the charity. Pricing everything for 50p and hoping whoever buys the item is worthy enough is idiotic and bad for the charity.

It’s cute common. I see a lot of young people in my local charity shops looking for ‘vintage’ items to sell on their Depop.

You are not bu, your friend is being ridiculous, the charity got the money they wanted for it, what happens afterwards is fine.

Agree - I've gift aided donations of books to charity shops before.

I work in a charity shop (although I don't get the massive wages a PP thinks I do, and often work extra time unpaid). We actually have targets for gift aid donations due to the increase in money raised compared to work hours used.

@slashlover

That's not how gift aid works. Gift aid is for cash donations to charity, not for goods donated to charity shops or on charity sales of goods.

It is absolutely for goods donated to charity shops. Everything which is gift aided is sold through a different barcode linked to that person. It means that something sold for £10 is actually worth £12.50 to the shop, where the £2.50 is claimed from the donators tax.

Yes my local charity shop give you a card if you regularly donate so they just swipe it and it then linked to gift aid. I'm not sure how it works on a technical level but that is how it works for me, I give them the item, give them the gift aid card and they swipe it.

Absolutely fine. The people who bought from you on eBay wouldn’t have seen the stuff in your local charity shop, so why not? It’s keeping things in the hands of those who want them and out of the bins.

I volunteer in a charity shop and items are checked online before they are priced. Having said that, they are still priced more cheaply than if sold new. Lots of people come in looking for bargains and I’m sure they do manage to sell some things for higher prices. It’s all fine.

You still helped the charity shop by buying them to start with, so YANBU. I was tempted to do the same when I saw a Vivienne Westwood purse in there for £5

I think it's fine. It annoys me when people ask or take things for free and profit off them but it's not the same when it's sold. If I sold an item and undervalued it then that's on me, if someone makes money off selling it then good on them.

Some years ago I spotted a boxed old toy in our local charity shop for £10. Across the road from the shop was a toy dealer and he'd apparently valued it for them at that price. It intrigued DH and I so we bought it, did a little research and discovered it was rare. So rare it turned out that nobody on the forum I asked about it believed me that it existed.

We put it on eBay. In the end it went for a few thousand and was sold to a toy museum in New York where it remains to this day. It transpired it was a toy only made in the UK and only for a year.

We used the money to remodel the kitchen in our house and made a donation back to the shop we'd found it in. Always made me chuckle though that one of the rarest collectible toys in the world passed through the hands of the local 'toy expert' and he put a tenner on it.

For me the thing is that no one is likely to pay £75 for a charity shop handbag, but they will for the same bag from ebay. No doubt it's more hassle for charity shops to put things on ebay and monitor it so they charge what they think the can get and sell it in the shop. I can see why your friend felt uncomfortable with it - making money out of a charity shop sounds a bit uncharitable to me to - but at the end of the day it was given to them for free so everyone was a winner really. I'd just not go telling everyone about it.

It could also be that the bag had been sitting there for a while. We might price something at £30 then a couple of weeks later reduce it to £20 to get a sale as there's no point having it at the higher price and taking up space.

It's similar to how during the summer we might price a load of jumpers for £1 to get clear them quickly or do the same for sandals in the winter.

Samphire - I once told a charity shop what an antique item was because I'd been given virtually the same thing (& much later sold it for more than the shop were asking). They said they had an expert who came in & advised them on pricing & he had set that price, presumably based on condition & the fact it was selling in a charity shop & not at a posh F2F auction.

The one time I bought something the shop had no idea about (a £3 antique necklace worth £50+ which was hanging with all the ones worth less than £3), I was thrilled with my purchase. It's the luck of the game, as far as I'm concerned. I love that necklace & wear it to this day; but if I'd sold it I wouldn't have felt guilty.

Last time I was in a charity shop there was a man in there on his mobile openly and loudly discussing what was there, the prices and if they could be sold for a profit. I think that's a bit much, and it came across as quite obnoxious.

Quietly buying stuff than ebaying it? Why not.

@Petardos

The charity is loosing money by not pricing accordingly. Once the item is yours you can do wherever you want. However, people going to charities to resell afterwards is a bit questionable 🤨

Come on charity shops are ‘businesses’ I believe that some make more money by having a fast turnover of items at reasonable prices. I think it’s fair to assume that folks don’t go shopping in them to pay ‘top dollar’, rather to find a bargain. Perfectly fine OP win win all round. I bet that bag would still have been on the shelf if the charity shop marked it up for £75.00.

Of course its fine. A charity shop will sell a lot of things for less than ebay because there's a limited number of people who will come through the door and they can't keep stock forever , they need turnover .

Whereas ebay covers the whole of the UK and beyond, so out there will be people who really want the item.